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INTO  FREE  POLAND 
VIA  GERMANY 


By 
MARTHA  CHICKERING 


*  ~> 

>    » 


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OVERSEAS  DEPARTMENT 

NATIONAL  BOARD  OF  THE 
YOUNG  WOMEN'S  CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATIONS 

600  LEXINGTON  AVENUE 

NEW  YORK  CITY 

I  Q2O 


Foreword 

Miss  Martha  Chickering  was  leader  of  the  first  unit 
of  Polish  Grey  Samaritans  to  be  sent  into  Poland.  Miss 
Chickering  returned  to  the  United  States  in  November, 
iqiq,  after  establishing  the  unit  in  Warsaw. 

The  Polish  Grey  Samaritans  are  the  outcome  of  an 
idea  suggested  by  Madame  Laura  G.  de  Turczynowicz 
when  she  came  to  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  in  1917.  Madame 
Turczynowicz  urged  that  Polish  girls  in  America  should 
be  given  training  which  would  fit  them  for  reconstruction 
service  in  Poland.  Her  suggestion  was  adopted,  and 
recruits  were  sought  throughout  the  country. 

•Polish  '  drobaf  ion  courses  were  given  in  Cleveland, 
iTrenf.qn,  Rochester,  Milwaukee,  Detroit,  St.  Louis,  and 
Pittsburgh.  ;  ;Qut  cf  three  hundred  girls  who  took  the 
probation  courses,  ninety  qualified  for  the  intensive 
course  in  the  Polish  Grey  Samaritan  School,  equipped  and 
opened  on  53rd  Street,  New  York  City,  October,  iqiS. 

Two  separate  courses  of  study  were  planned: 

Course  I  included  health  education  and  physiology, 
industrial  history,  social  problems,  institutional  visit- 
ing, systematized  housekeeping,  bookkeeping,  cooking, 
arts  and  crafts,  English,  Polish,  gymnasium. 

Course  II  included  lecture  work  under  the  auspices 
of  the  School  of  Philanthropy,  field  work  with  the 
Charity  Organization  Society,  child  training  with  the 
Froebel  League,  health  education,  Polish,  English,  sys- 


tematized    housekeeping,    bookkeeping,    cooking,    gym- 
nasium. 

The  School  closed  its  term  of  study  on  the  seventh 
of  June,  iqiq,  with  the  graduation  of  seventy-five 
students. 

Miss  Lois  Downs,  of  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  International 
Institute  of  Pittsburgh,  Mrs.  Thyrza  Barton  Dean  and 
Mrs.  Josefa  Kudlicka,  a  Polish  American,  had  been  sent 
previously  to  Poland  to  arrange  for  establishing  a  unit 
of  Grey  Samaritans  in  Warsaw. 

This  unit,  of  twenty  girls,  sailed  July  31,  iqiq,  in 
charge  of  Y.  W.  C.  A.  Secretaries,  Miss  Chickering,  Miss 
Frances  West,  Miss  Emily  Graves,  and  Miss  Stephanie 
Kozlowska.  The  last  three  secretaries  remained  in  War- 
saw; Miss  West  as  Recreation  Director,  Miss  Graves  as 
House  Director,  and  Miss  Kozlowska,  who  is  a  registered 
nurse,  as  Medical  Director. 

A  second  unit  of  ten  girls  will  sail  on  December  1 1 , 
i QIC),  in  charge  of  Miss  Amy  Tapping  and  Miss  Augusta 
Mettel,  a  registered  nurse. 

The  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  with  the  help  of  a  $10,000  donation 
from  the  Polish  Reconstruction  Fund,  pays  for  the  train- 
ing, the  transportation,  the  equipment  and  the  main- 
tenance (for  four  and  one-half  months)  of  these  girls. 
At  the  end  of  the  four  and  a  half  months'  period  the 
Polish  Government,  through  the  Central  Children's 
Committee,  will  assume  responsibility  for  them.  This 
Committee  was  first  called  into  being  by  the  American 
Relief  Administration,  but  was  later  taken  over  by  the 
Ministry  of  Public  Health,  a  department  of  the  Polish 
Government. 


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INTO  FREE  POLAND 
VIA  GERMANY 

By  MARTHA  CHICKERING 

N  JULY  of  this  year,  after  months  of  intensive 
training  and  impatient  waiting,  twenty  Polish 
Grey  Samaritans  (accompanied  by  three  Y.  W. 
C.  A.  counsellors  and  myself)  at  last  turned 
their  faces  toward  the  land  of  their  ancestors.  Tales  of  the 
sufferings  of  Poland,  especially  among  the  children,  had 
poured  into  America  and  tugged  at  the  heart  strings  of 
these  Polish- American  girls. 

After  the  armistice  was  signed  Mr.  Herbert  Hoover 
had  cabled  his  workers  in  America  that  he  could  not  go 
away  and  leave  the  children  of  Europe  as  they  were. 
The  Children's  Relief  Committee  was  formed  and  Poland 
was  named  as  the  place  of  greatest  need  for  children's 
work.  Here  was  the  opportunity  for  which  the  Polish 
Grey  Samaritans  had  eagerly  waited — the  opportunity  to 
give  of  themselves  and  of  all  they  had  learned  in  the 
service  of  their  parent  land.  Mr.  Hoover  warmly  en- 
dorsed the  plan  to  bring  a  unit  of  Grey  Samaritans  to 
Warsaw,  and  we  set  sail  on  July  3  ist  on  the  French  liner, 
Rochambeau. 

As  we  passed  the  Statue  of  Liberty,  the  girls  sang 
a  Polish  song  and  the  Star  Spangled  Banner.  How  many 
times  in  the  eventful  weeks  ahead  we  turned  back  in 
memory  to  the  Statue — and  there  were  days  when  she 

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seemed  a  long  way  off.    Days  in  which  we  struggled  with 
the  beginning  of  Polish  while  the  girls  did  the  same  with 
French,  passed  quickly,  and  we  reached  Paris  expecting 
to  proceed  immediately  to  Warsaw. 
But — c'est  I' armistice! 

DIFFICULTIES  OF  JOURNEY 

Travelling  to  Poland  just  wasn't  done  in  such  large 
groups  apparently.  We  heard  of  many  ways  to  get  to 
Poland — we  might  go  to  England  and  work  up  to  Copen- 
hagen and  thence  in  time  find  something  going  to  Danzig. 
Or,  we  might  go  around  by  Trieste  and  perhaps  get  a 
train  to  Vienna  and  in  time  get  to  Warsaw.  Or,  if  we 
would  break  up  in  small  groups,  we  might,  in  the  course 
of  several  weeks  get  ourselves  to  Warsaw  on  the  very 
overworked  Orient  Express — the  so-called  "diplomatic 
train."  But  as  a  unit — twenty-four  at  a  time — never! 

While  we  were  wraiting  a  weary  month  in  Paris,  I 
divided  the  girls  into  groups  of  four  and  sent  them  to 
visit  some  of  the  battlefields  of  France — Rheims,  Chateau 
Thierry  and  Belleau  Wood— that  they  might  become 
somewhat  accustomed  to  the  tragedy  there  before  seeing 
the  suffering  and  devastation  in  their  own  country.  Many 
of  the  girls  had  had  brothers  at  Belleau  Wood,  and  after 
they  returned  from  these  trips  they  would  come  to  me  in 
my  room  and  pour  out  the  stories  of  the  day,  and  through 
all  their  talk  ran  their  idealism  for  America. 

At  last,  through  the  courtesy  of  the  Polish  Typhus 
Mission,  we  were  started  from  Coblenz  straight  across 
Germany  in  a  German  freight  train.  The  Continental 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  had  been  good  enough  to  detail  Mr.  Wag- 

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goner,  an  American  Y.  M.  C.  A.  man  on  his  way  to 
Poland,  to  go  with  us  as  escort.  It  would  be  hard  to 
pay  enough  tribute  to  his  tireless  interest  and  care. 
Fifty- four  cars  we  were — first,  box  cars,  then  flat  cars, 
carrying  debusing  machines,  traction  engines  and  Fords, 
and  there,  at  the  end,  the  Polish  Grey  Samaritans  tucked 
into  two  compartment  cars  with  their  trunks  in  a  tired 
box  car! 

It  was  not  exactly  travelling  de  luxe,  and  food  and 
water  had  to  be  snatched  and  passed  at  stops.  But  it 
was  certainly  novel,  particularly  as  the  girls  decided  that 
sitting  on  the  Fords  was  the  real  way  to  travel,  and  the 
peasants  in  southern  Germany  will  not  soon  forget  the 
freight  train  that  carried  automobiles  on  flat  cars,  with 
girls  in  grey  uniforms  on  the  drivers'  seats. 

Then  came  the  Polish  border!  Here  was  Poland — 
free  Poland — after  a  year  and  a  half  of  work  and  waiting, 
and  weeks  of  travel — just  over  the  line! 

GERMANY 

But  the  German  Empire — or  rather  Republic — had 
its  own  ideas  on  the  subject.  Incidentally,  it  isn't  always 
easy  to  remember  that  Germany  is  a  republic  when  she 
has  never  taken  the  trouble  to  change  her  postage  stamps 
from  the  pre-war  "Deutsches  Reich,"  and  when  one  has 
confronted  a  German  officer  wearing  the  Iron  Cross  of 
Emperor  William  and  directing  soldiers  of  the  republic. 

But  let  that  pass!  The  German  Republic  had  its  own 
ideas  about  letting  us  into  Poland.  Our  freight  was  not 
paid  any  farther — the  border  had  been  moved  eighteen 
kilometers  east  (by  Germany)  since  we  left  Coblenz — 

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the  German  engine  could  not  take  us  farther,  because  it 
could  not  be  trusted  across  the  Polish  border,  etc.  There 
were  many  reasons  given  us  but  no  engine;  and  we  were 
helpless. 

So  while  the  American  captain  in  control  of  the  train 
argued  and  expostulated,  we  lived  in  German  freight 
yards,  under  guard,  for  five  days  and  nights,  cooking  our 
food  by  the  rails  with  the  help  of  an  American  mess- 
sergeant  who  was  one  of  the  ten  doughboys  on  the  train. 
Much  fun  the  girls  made  out  of  it,  too — but  not  all  fun. 
For  behind  the  fun  was  concealed  an  anxiety  which  never 
left  us,  that  the  Germans  might  not  be  considerate  of  the 
girls,  if  they  were  known  to  be  Polish,  so  we  allowed  no 
Polish  spoken  and  no  use  of  Polish  names.  On  the  track 
next  us  was  an  armored  train,  with  machine  guns  and 
two  big  Austrian  75's — always  with  steam  up,  ready  to 
go  forth  in  pursuit  of  Poles  if  the  constantly  threatening 
border  trouble  should  flare  up.  It  was  a  highly  sug- 
gestive neighbor. 

What  did  we  see  in  Germany?  Peaceful  fields,  houses 
with  all  the  bricks  in  regular  sequence  forming  walls  and 
roofs  instead  of  ruined  heaps,  as  in  parts  of  France  and 
most  of  Poland,  and  some  barefoot  women  and  children. 
We  were  told  there  was  hunger  in  the  big  cities,  but  that 
there  was  such  hunger  as  we  saw  in  Warsaw,  I  find  it 
hard  to  believe.  In  one  place,  the  officers  of  the  soldiers 
who  guarded  us  put  on  civilian  clothes  and  went  home 
at  night.  We  were  told  that  these  men  were  not  soldiers- 
only  volunteers.  Perhaps  that  is  Germany's  way  of  keep- 
ing one  million  men  under  arms!  One  cannot  tell  much 
of  a  country  by  crossing  it  in  three  days  and  then  living 
five  days  in  its  freight  yards;  but  one  cannot  come  out 

Page  Eleven 


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of  France,  cross  Germany  and  enter  Poland  without  sad 
comparisons,  and  one  cannot  see  the  growing  assurance 
of  Germans  as  one  goes  east  without  asking,  "What  does 
this  mean  for  Poland?  Has  Germany  forgotten  so  soon 
that  she  was  beaten  last  year?" 

POLAND 

Finally,  an  engine  came  and  we  crossed  the  border 
into  Poland — free  Poland!  Polish  soldiers  in  Polish  uni- 
forms were  at  the  first  station,  and  the  girls  saw  the 
dream  of  generations  of  Poles  realized  at  last.  Austrian 
soldiers,  German  soldiers,  Russian  soldiers  had  been 
common  enough  in  Poland,  but  the  girls  had  seen  Polish 
soldiers  only  in  secret  drill — the  secret  drills  through 
which  they  hoped  some  day  to  overthrow  the  oppressor. 

It  was  a  day  never-to-be-forgotten,  and  worth  the 
long  suspense — a  triumphal  ride  across  Posen,  and  finally 
into  Warsaw.  I  think  of  Poland  as  a  plain  (there  are 
very  beautiful  mountains  in  the  south,  but  most  of 
Poland  is  flat)  with  far  horizons,  woods  that  push  straight 
up  into  the  sky,  roadside  crosses  that  climb  up  and  up 
like  the  woods — plain,  austere,  aspiring  crosses,  not 
ornate  like  most  of  Europe's  shrines — and  peasant  folk 
with  eyes  that  made  more  than  one  American  say  to 
me,  "I  have  never  seen  so  many  kind  eyes  as  in  Poland." 
All  of  this,  Poland,  innately,  is.  Above  all,  Poland  is  a 
land  of  brave  men  and  devoted  women — eager  patriots 
all — and  the  Polish  Government  is  making  wonderful 
strides  in  the  face  of  terrific  obstacles. 

There  are  a  few  facts  Americans  should  know  about 
the  Poland  of  to-day. 

Page  Thirteen 


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OUTSTANDING  PROBLEMS  IN  POLAND 

In  the  first  place,  Poland  is  at  war,  holding  1,500 
kilometers  of  front  against  a  highly  organized  Bolshevist 
army.  And  that  war  is  partly  our  war  because,  if  Germany 
ever  establishes  direct  connection  with  the  Bolshevist 
Government,  we  have  reason  to  believe  it  will  not  be  for 
our  good.  A  strong  Poland  is  the  last  thing  Germany 
wants  to  see.  Military  hospitals  in  Warsaw  are  full  of 
wounded  today.  Just  before  I  left  in  October,  notices 
of  a  new  conscription  appeared  on  the  streets,  and  many 
youths  of  fifteen  and  sixteen  were  entering  the  ranks. 
I  saw  a  boy  of  fourteen  who  had  been  in  the  trenches 
two  years. 

In  the  second  place,  whatever  is  true  of  post-bellum 
France  is  doubly  true  of  war-ravaged  Poland,  but  in  the 
case  of  Poland  there  is  no  indemnity  coming  back.  Like 
France,  the  country  was  stripped  of  its  machinery  and 
means  of  production.  In  one  factory,  which  I  visited, 
the  Germans  had  carried  away  nine  out  of  ten  machines 
before  they  were  interrupted.  That  factory  is  now 
running  with  the  one  machine.  Poland  has  practically 
no  raw  materials  with  which  to  turn  the  wheels  of  those 
factories  that  can  operate.  Persons  in  Eastern  Poland 
have  lived  on  grass,  and  nothing  but  grass  for  weeks.  At 
one  of  our  stops  a  child  eagerly  seized  a  bit  of  meat  which 
I  had  left  on  my  plate,  and  hurried  away  to  divide  it 
with  his  companion.  The  bread  for  the  army  is  driven 
through  the  streets  under  guard,  that  it  may  not  be 
stolen. 

In  the  third  place,  for  more  than  a  hundred  years, 
Poland  has  been  divided  among  three  masters — Austria, 

Page  Fifteen 


In  their  Sunday  best  before  the  village  church 


Into  Free  Poland  Via  Germany 

Prussia,  and  Russia.  At  a  peasant  fair  in  Galicia  I  collected 
coins  of  Hungary,  Austria,  Russia,  Germany  and  Poland, 
all  in  circulation.  Under  Russia,  and  somewhat  under 
Germany,  no  Pole  could  hold  public  office,  even  to  being 
connected  in  the  most  minor  capacity  with  public  utilities. 
This  means  that  the  citizens  of  Free  Poland  must  learn 
self-government  from  the  ground  up — not  only  how  to 
be  mayors  and  presidents,  but  how  to  be  street-car  con- 
ductors and  post-office  clerks.  More  than  all,  it  means 
that  a  people  educated  to  three  kinds  of  government 
must  mould  and  adapt  themselves  to  one. 

In  one  village  of  Posen — formerly  German  Poland — 
the  station  master  regretted  that  we  were  not  to  change 
engines  -in  his  district.  "Here  we  would  do  it  for  you 
promptly,  but  further  up  the  Russian  Poles  will  promise 
you  very  politely,  yes — but  then  they  will  not  do  it. 
Russian  Poles  are  like  that." 

A  Grey  Samaritan  girl  upbraided  him  quickly.  'You 
are  no  longer  a  country  of  Russian  or  German  or  Austrian 
Poles;  you  are  all  one  people  now.  You  should  learn  the 
spirit  of  unity  from  America." 

To  Poland,  America  is  the  saviour  nation,  represent- 
ing the  essence  of  philanthropy  and  practical  idealism. 
Pictures  of  Mr.  Hoover  can  be  found  in  nearly  every 
shop  window.  President  Wilson's  illness  was  felt  as  a 
national  calamity.  Mr.  Gibson,  the  American  minister, 
is  universally  esteemed.  No  hospitality  is  too  great  to 
be  extended  to  Americans. 

At  one  of  our  stopping  places  we  were  entertained  at 
dinner  by  a  family  formerly  well-to-do  and  prominent 
socially.  The  dinner  of  several  courses  was  excellent. 

Page  Seventeen 


The  pig  walks  into  the  family  portrait 


Into  Free  Poland  Via  Germany 

We  mentioned  casually  that  the  coffee  was  particularly 
delicious.  Our  host  then  admitted  that  this  coffee  had 
been  saved  by  his  wife  since  before  the  war  for  some 
"special  occasion."  And  this  bit  of  coffee  had  been  saved 
even  though  Austrian,  Russian  and  German  armies  had 
been  successively  billeted  on  them,  and  then  given  to  us 
as  Americans!  We  later  discovered  that,  after  our 
departure,  the  family  returned  to  its  usual  daily  food 
of  potatoes  and  sour  milk. 

When  it  was  learned  that  our  Grey  Samaritans  had 
come  to  offer  themselves  and  their  training  to  the  land 
of  their  ancestors,  nearly  every  city  in  Poland  which 
had  medical  work  petitioned  for  them. 

The  Mayor  of  Kalisz  asked  to  have  two  of  these  girls 
come  to  his  city  simply  to  strengthen  the  morale  of  his 
discouraged  workers.  I  chose  the  two  girls  I  thought 
best  fitted  for  the  task,  and  learned  only  ten  minutes 
before  they  were  to  start  that  one  of  them  had  arranged 
to  meet  her  fiance,  a  soldier  in  the  Polish  Army,  that 
week  end.  She  had  not  seen  him  since  1917  when  he 
enlisted  in  the  Polish  Army  in  America,  and  she  might 
not  be  able  to  arrange  another  meeting  for  months. 
When  I  asked  her  why  she  had  not  told  me  of  her  plans, 
she  answered,  "Miss  Chickering,  I  came  over  here  to 
help  Poland,  not  for  my  personal  pleasure." 

WARSAW 

It  was  finally  decided  to  keep  all  of  the  girls  in  War- 
saw, the  capital.  Warsaw  is  a  beautiful  city — not  large, 
and,  like  many  European  cities  to-day,  seriously  over- 
crowded. It  has  beautiful  parks,  buildings,  monuments. 

Page  Nineteen 


Home  from  the  bread  line  on  a  winter's  day 


Into  Free  Poland  Via  Germany 


As  has  been  written  again  and  again,  it  has  some  of  the 
most  charming  and  cultivated  people  in  the  world.  The 
Poland  which  gave  us  Chopin  and  Paderewski,  Coper- 
nicus, Sinkiewicz  and  Mickiewicz  is  not  yet  dead,  any 
more  than  the  Poland  which  gave  us  Kosciusko.  Even 
in  its  suffering,  Warsaw's  windows  are  full  of  beautiful 
etchings  and  paintings,  and  shops  of  artists'  materials 
are  abundant.  Opera  in  Warsaw — particularly  the  re- 
vived national  Polish  operas  like  "Halka"  -is  very 
beautiful.  Moreover,  Warsaw  is  forging  up  hill,  not 
slipping  down.  When  Miss  Downs  came  into  Warsaw 
in  June,  she  said  it  was  a  rare  thing  to  see  the  Polish 
working  people  in  shoes;  now,  about  half  have  shoes,  if 
not  stockings.  Some  food,  clothing,  soap,  tobacco  and 
raw  materials  have  come  in. 

Even  so,  when  I  close  my  eyes,  certain  pictures 
rise  in  my  mind,  not  because  they  were  rare  and  striking 
incidents,  but  because  I  saw  them  repeated  again  and 
again,  until  they  were  burned  into  my  memory :  a  woman 
barefoot,  leaning  against  a  wall,  too  weary  to  lift  her  eye- 
lids enough  to  let  you  see  the  despair  in  her  eyes;  a  man 
(or  a  child,  or  a  woman)  hurrying  down  the  streets  hugging 
his  loaf  of  bread  for  which  he  had  waited  hours  in  the 
bread-line;  funerals,  all  too  often  with  a  baby's  tiny 
casket  on  the  bare  frame  of  the  dray  which  is  a  Polish 
hearse;  children  begging  for  bread;  a  child  looking  through 
the  window  to  watch  you  eat;  a  city  of  people  not  perhaps 
starving  to  death  (though  we  found  such  even  in  the 
three  weeks  I  was  there)  but  on  the  acute  edge  of  want, 
and  watching  with  gray  apprehension  the  merciless  draw- 
ing down  of  winter. 

Page  Twenty-one 


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Into  conditions  such  as  this  came  our  girls — eager, 
able,  devoted  and  ready  to  face  any  hardships,  any 

difficulties  for  Poland. 

FINIS 

Two  of  them  were  put  in  charge  of  a  nursery  in  a 
refugee  camp.  Added  to  its  other  problems,  Poland  has 
fifteen  camps  of  refugees  from  all  Eastern  Europe.  The 
one  I  visited  had  two  thousand  people  there  at  the  time, 
and  had  had  over  one  hundred  thousand  pass  through 
its  barracks  during  the  war. 

Two  other  girls  took  another  nursery. 

The  other  sixteen  were  set  to  visiting  in  the  homes  of 
the  families  of  Polish  soldiers  in  order  to  report  cases  of 
acute  want. 

It  was  like  watching  an  army  dig  in,  wait  a  bit  to 
test  the  strength  of  its  opponent,  and  then  attack. 

The  second  day,  a  baby  died  in  one  nursery.  Some 
were  desperately  sick  from  malnutrition  in  the  other. 
Then  the  girls  attacked.  All  they  had  learned,  all  their 
intelligence,  all  the  love  that  poured  through  their  eager 
Polish-American  hearts  into  the  saving  of  Polish  babies 
were  pitted  against  death.  And  in  the  short  three  weeks 
I  was  there,  the  death-rate  of  their  nurseries  had  fallen 
fifty  per  cent. 

With  the  approach  of  winter,  ten  soup  kitchens  will 
be  opened  under  The  Central  Children's  Committee,  of 
which  Mme.  Helena  Paderewska  is  chairman.  The  girls  will 
direct  each  kitchen  Food  and  the  minor  medical  care  which 
can  change  conditions  so  radically  will  be  given  the  children. 

There  is  an  appalling  amount  of  eye-infection  and 
tuberculosis  among  the  children.  Out  of  two  thousand 

Page  Twenty-three 


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school  children  examined,  practically  all  had  tuberculosis 
in  one  form  or  another.  In  the  case  of  these  diseases, 
our  girls  will  attempt  to  teach  the  victims  the  simpler 
rules  of  care  and  prevention. 

Of  course,  we  cannot  expect  twenty  girls  to  meet  all 
of  the  vast  needs  of  the  war-bled  city,  but  what  we 
believe  they  can  and  will  do,  is  (i)  to  set  a  standard  for 
child  welfare  work  for  Poland,  and  (2)  build  up  scientific 
social  service  based  on  the  case  work  method.  (Statistics 
were  frowned  upon  under  Russia,  so  a  survey  is  difficult 
to  make  but,  as  nearly  as  we  could  find  out,  the  death- 
rate  of  children  in  Warsaw  seemed  to  be  about  twenty- 
five  per  cent). 

The  Polish  Grey  Samaritans  and  their  service  are 
America's  gift  to  Poland  through  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  We 
have  taken  of  Poland's  own  youth,  trained  it,  and  now 
given  it  back  to  the  mother  land.  These  girls  bring 
skill,  a  knowledge  of  the  Polish  language,  an  under- 
standing of  Polish  traditions  and  an  unbreakable  devo- 
tion to  the  land  of  their  ancestors. 

But  they  bring  still  more. 

A  woman  who  spoke  English  met  one  of  the  girls 
with  me  one  day,  a  girl  whose  residence  in  America  did 
not  span  a  dozen  years.  "But  she  speaks  Polish!"  the 
woman  said  to  me  in  surprise.  'Yes,  truly — she  is 
Polish,"  I  replied.  The  woman  turned  and  looked  at 
the  girl  again,  wistfully.  "Ah,  yes,"  she  said,  to  herself, 
not  to  me,  "she  is  Polish,  but  yes,  she  has  lived  in  America 
and  freedom  shines  in  her." 

The  Polish  Grey  Samaritan  brings  to  Poland,  above  all 
else,  the  spirit  of  democracy — America's  ideal  of  liberty. 

Page  Twenty- five 


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